Missing
by mysticalforces
Summary: Alternate Universe. Stefan Salvatore and Elena Gilbert have grown up together and they share a beautiful and complicated history. Having just graduated high school, Stefan comes up with the biggest surprise for his girlfriend; a trip to Bermuda. What happens right when their supposed to leave Burmuda, Elena winds up missing?
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I own NOTHING. If I did, Elena would've chosen Stefan in the finale and not Damon.

Alright. The idea for this fic came from the movie "Natalee Holloway", but it is VERY different.

Prologue

Prologue

"Are you ready?"

Stefan looked up from his seat. His eyes were bloodshot, and looked like he hadn't slept in days.

_Who was ready for this?_ Stefan numbly wondered. _Who was ready to deal with something this life-altering? Who was ready to face that their world had been changed forever and definitely not for the better?_

Stefan simply nodded his head.

The truth was, this wasn't about him.

This had nothing to do with him.

This was about the one person who mattered more than his very existence.

He would do whatever it took.

"Listen," The middle age woman began, her eyes soft. "I am so sorry that I had to tell yo-"

Stefan shook his head, his whole being just numb. "Please, I can't...I can't hear it again. I have to go out there and tell millions of people that my world is missing," He breathed in deeply. "I have to tell all of them who is responsible."

The woman nodded. "Still, you don't have to do that now. I laid one hell of a bombshell on you. If you need a few minutes..."

"Elena doesn't have a few minutes!" Stefan snapped, and then calmed himself down. "Listen, I don't know what's going on, okay? I don't know if my girl is..." He blinked back tears. "I don't know! All I do know is that this is not gonna go unpunished, and those guys...are not gonna be able to hide from this. I'll make sure of that."

The woman nodded again, and looked at him with a great deal of respect. "In that case, you're on now."

Stefan nodded and followed the woman out.

Stefan stepped into the news room, and stood in front of the camera.

"My name is Stefan Salvatore and my girlfriend, Elena Gilbert has disappeared." He began. "She was last seen at the Dark Horse being lead away by two guys maybe a couple years older than me." He took a deep breath. "One of them is Klaus Michelson . He is involved in a violent crime against my girlfriend. The other believed to be merely an accomplice, is Elijah Michelson."

Stefan's eyes held a tinge of raw anger, but kept calm. "I am hoping to get this message across to every nation out there. Do not let these criminals walk among your citizens. Do not chance letting him do to someone you love what he has done to someone that I love." He choked and blinked back a few tears. "This is in honor of my beautiful girlfriend who I have not seen in forty two days, and who I will continue to search until I find her. Thank you."


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: I wanna thank everyone for the reviews and for those who are following this story. The support means a lot. I did not mean for the wait to be so long but I got a little stumped lol. I hope to have this be more regular. Hope you guys like this next chapter, which is longer. Please review!

**Chapter 1**

_Stefan walked into his girlfriend's house and smiled when he saw her going through papers. "Hey, baby."_

_Elena turned around, a huge grin on her face. "Stefan!" She squealed as she jumped into his arms._

_Stefan smiled as he held his girlfriend tightly. "Not that I don't love having you in my arms, but what's it for?"_

_Elena pulled back, her smile still on her face. "I just missed you is all."_

_Stefan raised an eyebrow at her. "You saw me five minutes ago,"_

_Elena shrugged. "Five minutes is too long."_

"Stefan?"

Stefan lifted his head up, bolted out of his thoughts. "Hey, Caroline."

Caroline continued to stare at him in concern. "You were thinking about Elena, weren't you?"

Stefan smiled sadly. "I never stop thinking about her, Caroline. You know, ever since she disappeared all I do is remember everything we ever said to each other."

Caroline nodded understandingly. "Of course."

"You know," Stefan continued. "I used to give her such a hard time when she would say she missed me. Just now, I was remembering going over to her house and she threw herself in my arms," Stefan smiled at the memory. "and I asked her what it was for, and she said she missed me."

Caroline looked at him with empathy. This was hard for her, but she couldn't imagine how hard this was for Stefan. She'd known the two of them ever since kindergarten, she knew how in love they were. She thought about losing Tyler and it have her a cold stab in the chest, she couldn't imagine how Stefan was even keeping it together.

Stefan laughed brokenly. "I'd only been gone for five minutes! I told her that, and she said 'five minutes is too long'."

"Stefan," Caroline began.

"I took her for granted, Caroline!" Stefan cried. "I took Elena for granted. I always did. I always took her for granted. I took it for granted that she loved me, I took it for granted that she would forgive me no matter what stupid thing I did!" He ran his hand over his face. "That night...I took her for granted that night too."

"Stefan, this wasn't your fault." Caroline said firmly.

"Isn't it?" Stefan demanded. "I left her alone, Caroline! I left my girlfriend alone in a bar in some foreign country with a guy I didn't know from fucking adam! It _is_ my fault!"

"Listen," Caroline began. "Elena's not entirely innocent here. Take a look back and think about why you left her alone in that bar."

"Because I was pissed at her," Stefan said softly as his mind began to drift back.

_"What the hell are you doing, Elena?!" Stefan roared angrily._

_Elena was laying on the bar with her shirt halfway up. "Stefan!" Elena giggled uncontrollably as she fought to sit up. "This is my...my..." Elena struggled to get words out, as she tried to introduce this stranger to her boyfriend._

_"BOYFRIEND!" Stefan roared impatient with her. He was so mad, he couldn't see straight._

_"Right!" Elena laughed, oblivious to her pissed off boyfriend. "My guy...my guy! Stefan, this is.-"_

_"I don't give a fuck who he is, Elena!" Stefan snapped. "What I do give a fuck about though is this random stranger drinking body shots off of you, and oh yeah!" He went on sarcastically. "Kissing you! I kinda give a fuck about that too!"_

_Elena continued to laugh, all the alcohol completely gone into her head._

_"You blow off meeting my friends for this!" Stefan continued pissed off. "You say you're uncomfortable around a bunch of people you don't know, yet you seem to have no problem being around this loser!"_

_"Hey!" The guy protested, starting to get a little pissed. "I'd watch your mouth if I were you,"_

_"Oh!" Stefan laughed. He was about ready to kick this guy's ass anyway, just give him a reason. "I'd better watch my mouth?! Well, buddy right fucking back at you!" Stefan shoved him._

_"Stefan!" Elena whined. "You're ruining this! I'm not having fun anymore!"_

_"Oh!" Stefan turned back to her. He was so pissed off that he didn't seem to realize that this was not the way she acted when she was wasted. His jealousy and anger was just completely taking over him. "You're not having fun anymore? Ok. Well, since you seemed to be having so much fun before I so rudely interrupted you, I think I'll go!" _

_Stefan turned around to stalk off. "Have fun, Elena!" He yelled over his shoulder. "By all fucking means!"_

"I was such a bastard," Stefan whispered, angry with himself.

"You weren't," Caroline insisted. "any guy would have reacted that way! No guy is gonna be okay with their girl doing what Elena did. I still can't believe she did it. It's so not like her."

"And if I hadn't been so busy being jealous and pissed off, I would've realized that." Stefan went on, beating himself up. "I left her there. I left her with Klaus, I didn't even know his name at the time. I went up the stairs to a different section of the bar, because if I didn't cool myself off quickly I was gonna stomp back on down there and beat the shit out of that guy."

Stefan half laughed. "I wish I had now, Caroline. I really wish I had, because Elena would be here right now. She may not be thrilled with me, hell she may not even be _with_ me right now...but at least I'd know that she was ok. Now, I'm stuck with this gut wrenching pain in my stomach."

Stefan looked at Caroline with tear-filled eyes. "I'm so scared, Caroline. I'm scared to death that she's not-"

"Don't say it, Stefan!" Caroline cut in quickly, not able to bare hearing such an negative thought. "Don't even _think_ it! We have to remain positive here."

"I know," Stefan replied, nodding his head rapidly. He breathed in deeply. "and I am, okay? I'm not giving up, I will find her. I owe her that. Hell, I owe her family that."

"You can't blame yourself either, Stefan." Caroline told him firmly. "What's done is done, okay? Maybe you both behaved badly. Now, it's time to do something about it. Because if you just sit here and blame yourself, and something really does happen to her...then you really _are_ at fault."

Caroline took a deep breath, she didn't mean to be that harsh. She was just as scared as he was, and she was saying things that she didn't wanna be saying. "I didn't mean that, Stefan. I'm sorry."

"It doesn't matter if you did or not, Caroline." Stefan said softly. "You're right. If I focus on my self-pity, than I really could lose Elena. And I'd never forgive myself for that. I'll also never forgive myself for leaving her there. I just...you don't know what that feels like Caroline."

"I sympathize," Caroline started to say.

"But you don't understand!" Stefan snapped. "You don't know what it's like to know that someone you love has been taken away from you, and God knows what could be happening to them! You don't know what it's like to carry the feeling that it's all your fault!"

Caroline sighed. "Stefan.."

"That you let it happen!" Stefan continued on, his whole face anguished. "It's like watching a movie inside your head that never fucking ends! I see the bar, I see me and Elena, and than I see her with Klaus."

Stefan's face twisted in anger. "I see her shirt half pulled up and him doing a shot off of her, his lips touching her skin! And than, I see her raise up and I see him pull her into his arms and kiss her! Kiss her, Caroline! I see Klaus kiss my girlfriend! Instead of getting pissed at him, I get pissed at her!"

"Of course, you did!" Caroline's face was twisted with different emotions. She loved Elena, but she also understood Stefan's side. "She-"

"I should've realized!" Stefan yelled. "I should've realized that it wasn't really her! You know how many times we've all been wasted? All those times that we've been wasted together, has Elena ever acted like that?!"

Caroline slowly shook her head. "Never."

"You know, they found an assortment of Mickeys on Klaus," Stefan told her.

Caroline gasped. "What?"

"Yeah," Stefan nodded. "I was so pissed at Elena for thinking that she was just cheating on me right in front of me! I never even took the time to realize that something very different was going on with her."

"That wasn't your fault, Stefan." Caroline tried to assure him. "You couldn't have known that this would happen."

"Elena's mom trusted me to take her down here," Stefan said, his self-hatred just growing. "her dad didn't want me to take her here. Her dad never even wanted us to be together!" He laughed bitterly. "He said that I wasn't good enough for her! I sure proved him wrong, didn't I?"

Meanwhile a loud slam woke Elena Gilbert up.

"Good to see you're awake, Elena." Elijah said.

Elena just rolled her eyes defiantly. "This is never gonna work, you know?"

"I think it's been working just fine." Klaus said as he entered the room.

"You are both such fools," Elena replied with a shake of her head. "you're never gonna get away with this. Speaking of which, what are you trying to get away with? You never did answer me before."

"Oh?" Klaus questioned, appearing to take offense. "Did I not tell you? Was I rude to you, Elena Gilbert?"

"Ok," Elena laughed, beginning to get pissed off. "why do you keep calling me by my full name? What the hell is up with that?"

"We go way back, Elena." Klaus replied with a smirk. "We're practically family."

"Ok, I'm really sick of your psychological mind games." Elena said angrily. "What do you want with me?!"

"All in good time, Elena Gilbert." Klaus laughed as he walked back out the door. "All in good time."

"Elijah," Elena said softly, she could tell that he wasn't like Klaus. There was a softness to him. "please, what is-"

"I'm sorry, Elena." Elijah said softly, as he turned to go out the door. "I just...I'm really, really sorry."

"Elijah, please!" Elena cried, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I don't understand! Please, don't leave me here. Just tell me!"

Elijah gave her one last sorrowful look, before turning around and walking out the door. He shut it behind him, and locked it, leaving Elena Gilbert in the darkness all alone.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Thank you all so much for the reviews! Hope you like this new chapter J

**Chapter 2**

_"Ooh, hey." Elena smiled as she felt her boyfriend's arms wrap around her from behind._

_"Guess, who." Stefan whispered against her ear._

_"Hmm..." Elena pretended to think. "Ben Affleck!"_

_"Why, Jennifer Garner how'd you __**ever**__ guess?" Stefan teased._

_Elena elbowed him playfully, as she turned around in his arms. "Ha, ha. You're very funny."_

_"Oh, I know right?" Stefan smiled._

_"Hilarious, in fact." Elena added._

_"Well, your hilarious boyfriend has a little surprise for you." Stefan grinned._

_"Little?" Elena raised her eyebrow. _

_She knew her boyfriend. Nothing he ever did for her was little. She knew that he always felt like he had to give her the whole world, and she'd tried telling him she never cared about all of that, but he always insisted._

_"Okay," Stefan gave in. Damn, she knew him well. "Maybe not so little."_

_"Stefan..." Elena warned. It was the tone that said 'if you don't tell me now, I'm gonna beat you' look._

_"Ok, ok." Stefan relented. "You've twisted my arm. I'll tell you."_

_"Well, finally." Elena grinned. "It's been like a year over here."_

_"Always the drama queen." Stefan teased._

_"Stefan!" Elena whined, slapping his arm._

_"You know, I don't know if I should give it to you now. I mean, you're coming off as really violent here," Stefan continued to tease her._

_"Okay, Stefan..." Elena began in a no nonsense tone. "You and I could do this for like the next ten years probably. You know it, I know it. We also both know that you are going to eventually tell me whatever it is that you have cooked up. So, do you wanna torture me or do you wanna just tell me?"_

_"Hmmm," Stefan said thoughtfully, before throwing her over his shoulder as she squealed. "I wanna torture you!"_

_Elena laughed "Stefan!"_

_Stefan tossed her on her bed and got on top of her as he started tickling her relentlessly._

_"I.." Elena giggled and began to kick through his attack. "ha..." Elena yelped again in a squeal as he found her most ticklish spot, her ribs. "I fucking hate you, Stefan Salvatore!" However, the playful gleam in her eyes and the tone of her voice showed that she felt anything but hate for the man pinning her down._

_Stefan stopped his assault, and gently touched her face. "I fucking __**love**__ you, Elena Gilbert."_

_Elena smiled as she reached up to touch his face. "I love you too, Stefan. You know that, right?"_

_Stefan leaned down and kissed her deeply, before pulling back to gaze into her eyes. "I do know." He whispered. "I've always known."_

_A playful gleam was in Elena's eyes. "Oh yeah? Egotistical much?"_

_Stefan grinned. "What can I say, babe? Open book, ever since day one.."_

"Please, still know Stefan." Elena whimpered, as she leaned against the wall in the darkened room. "I screwed things up so bad at that bar. Please, believe that I would _never_ cheat on you in my right mind." Tears rolled down her face. "Please, know Stefan. Please, find me."

"You _have _to find her, Stefan!" Jenna Gilbert's angry voice boomed through the phone line.

"I will, Mrs. Gilbert." Stefan replied firmly. "I need you to trust that, okay?"

"I'm still paying the repercussions of the _last_ time I trusted you with my daughter's safety!" Jenna yelled.

Stefan sighed. "I know and I'm so sorry. I never...You have no idea how I bad I feel."

"No offense, Stefan but your feelings are the last thing on my mind right now!" Jenna took a deep breath to calm herself. "I don't understand it. You know how important it is to stay in groups when you go out of the country. I talked to you and Elena several times about it!"

"I know." Stefan said softly, his self hatred just sky rocketing. "I...I screwed up. I take full responsibility, it's my fault."

"You know, what? It _is_ your fault, Stefan!" Jenna hissed as she became angry once again. "How could you just _lose_ her?!"

"I didn't lose her!" Stefan snapped irritably, having enough of Jenna's attitude. "God! You people still don't get it, do you? Your daughter is _not_ a damn accessory! She's a fucking person!"

"Hey!" Jenna cut in pissed off. "Don't you dare talk to me like that!"

"No!" Stefan yelled. "I'm sick of this! I am sick of you and Rick acting like you know a damn thing about my love for Elena! The truth is I love that girl more than the two of you combined _ever_ could!" He flipped his cell phone shut, effectively hanging up on her.

"Feel better now?"

Stefan turned around to see Caroline with her arms crossed. "No," he admitted. "not really. Jenna's got every right to be pissed at me. I just made an ass out of myself."

Caroline shrugged. "Possibly, but you were right about something."

"Oh yeah? What's that?" Stefan asked tiredly.

"You love my best friend more than her parents have _ever_ shown in her whole life." Caroline told him firmly.

"I shouldn't have said that," Stefan said with a shake of his head, already regretting his harsh words. "they may not be the world's best parents, but I know they love Elena too. How could they not? I just..."

Caroline gently touched his arm. "You just what, Stefan?"

Stefan looked up at her. "I just can't take hearing how much _all_ of this is my fault. I know that it is, but I just...hearing it from other people is just too much."

"Jenna told you it was your fault?" Caroline was shocked at that. She knew Jenna was the softer of the two parents, and she'd always been more supportive of Elena's relationship with Stefan than Rick had ever been.

Stefan nodded. "She's right. It is my fault. I left her."

"It is _not_ your fault!" Caroline repeated. "You have to give yourself a break here."

"Well, I can't!" Stefan yelled. "I can't give myself a break, I can't deal, I can't be _anything_ until I know what happened!"

Stefan stalked out of the room.

Caroline sighed. "I know you can't, Stefan. That's what worries me."

Elena jolted as she heard the door swing wide open, her captors walking in.

"Elena Gilbert, I think I have something that is gonna brighten you up." Klaus smiled.

Elena just rolled her eyes. "Unless, you're gonna let me go..."

"Let you go?" Klaus smirked. "I would _never_ let you go! You've become way too valuable to me."

"Well, that's just great." Elena retorted sarcastically. "So glad I've been able to help you earn some cash."

"Not just cash, Elena Gilbert," Klaus replied with a shake of his head. "you've helped me start the beautiful road to vengeance. And oh what a sweet ass vengeance it's gonna be!"

Elena's eyes widened as she finally realized what her abduction has been all about. "My father. Of course." Elena whispered in disgust. "You're pissed at my dad, so you're using me!" Klaus grinned, and Elena just glared at him in pure disgust. "Real nice."

Klaus shrugged. "Eh, what the hell are you you gonna do? I needed a way, and when I found out you and your boy toy were going to Bermuda, well my plan became crystal clear."

"You _knew_ I was coming here?!" Elena exploded. "What the hell are you, some kind of sick stalker?!"

"I prefer the term investor." Klaus shrugged.

"Investor?!" Elena laughed outraged. "What the hell do you _invest_ in?! Besides, turning my life upside down to fill some sick endgame with my dad, of course!"

"I'm a business man, Elena Gilbert." Klaus revealed. "And you are quite the investment if I do say so myself."

"What the hell does that mean?" Elena demanded, fighting the tinge of fear that was coming over her.

Klaus shrugged. "I run a very profitable business. Young girls like you, entertain some associates of mine."

Elena felt her body begin to shake, as the coldness of this whole situation was finally being made clear to her. "What?!"

"Don't worry, kid. It ain't all bad. " Klaus smirked. "I'll sell you to the perfect gentleman."

Elena turned her face into the wall, as she tried to hide her cries.

Klaus turned to Elijah. "Watch her, and no trying out the enterprise before shipping."

"Yeah, you got it." Elijah replied as if a robot.

Klaus turned and walked out the door.

"Ok, listen kid..." Elijah began with urgancy. "I'm gonna do this one thing for you, and if you screw me over, well good luck with Klaus is all I gotta say."

Elena looked up at him, her face tearstained. "What?"

Elijah sighed and handed her his cell phone. "Call your boyfriend, tell him what's up."


End file.
